What Airport Travelers Teach Us About Autonomous Mobility

Over the past several weeks, BBGo was deployed at San José Mineta International Airport during the FIFA Club World Cup and the US Table Tennis Championships. During that time, our vehicles completed 1,704 vehicle movements, traveled 175 miles, and operated autonomously for more than 119 hours, helping travelers move independently throughout the terminal.

Every trail in the animation above represents a real journey through San José Mineta International Airport.

Together they tell the story of hundreds of autonomous trips, thousands of navigation decisions, and countless interactions with travelers sharing the terminal.

While the telemetry shows us where BBGo traveled, the people riding it taught us something even more valuable.

Every deployment gives us valuable operational data: ride counts, miles traveled, battery usage, and navigation statistics. But perhaps even more valuable are the lessons we learn from the people who ride with us. Watching hundreds of passengers interact with autonomous mobility for the first time has taught us as much about human behavior as it has about robotics.

“Wait… it drives itself?”

One of the most common first reactions was wonderfully predictable.

Passengers would board the vehicle and immediately reach for the joystick, assuming BBGo was simply an electric wheelchair. When we explained that it would drive itself, there was almost always a brief pause followed by a smile.

“Really?”

“It takes me there by itself?”

One passenger looked around, laughed, and said,

“Well… of course. We’re in Silicon Valley.”

For many people, this was their first experience riding in an autonomous vehicle. Watching that initial hesitation turn into curiosity, and then confidence, was one of the most rewarding parts of the deployment.

Autonomy Doesn’t Drive As People Expect

Another surprise came once the ride began.

Many passengers expected BBGo to simply point toward their destination and drive in a straight line. Instead, they watched it slow for pedestrians, move around groups of people and airport signage, wait patiently when someone unexpectedly stopped, and choose routes that felt natural rather than mechanical.

For us, these behaviors represent years of software development, mapping, localization, perception, and motion planning.

For our passengers, it was simply fascinating to watch the vehicle make decisions.

Many finished their ride saying they hadn’t expected autonomous navigation to feel so…human.

“Can it go faster?”

Without question, the most common piece of feedback we received was:

“Can it go faster?”

It’s a fair question. Many travelers naturally compare BBGo, which moves at a top speed of 2.25 mph, to the electric golf carts commonly seen in airports. Those carts often travel at speeds of up to 6-8 mph, often weaving efficiently through busy terminals under the control of an experienced human driver who often announces the cart's presence as well. 

So why doesn’t BBGo simply drive that fast?

The answer lies in the difference between human judgment and autonomous decision-making.

A trained driver constantly reads subtle social cues that humans rarely think about. They make eye contact with pedestrians, recognize when someone is about to step aside, anticipate when a family will split apart, or gently signal their intention to continue forward. These decisions happen almost instinctively.

An autonomous vehicle faces a different challenge.

Busy airport terminals are remarkably unpredictable. Travelers stop suddenly to check flight information or answer a text message. Some walk while looking down at their phones. Families spread across the concourse. Children change direction without warning. Every few seconds, the environment changes.

When uncertainty exists, an autonomous system should always choose the safer option.

Several passengers suggested adding an audible warning to encourage people to move out of the way. While that approach may work in some situations, our philosophy is different. We don’t believe autonomous mobility should require pedestrians to change their behavior, especially when we have a fleet of vehicles moving up and down the concourse.  Instead, we believe technology should adapt to people, not the other way around. Our goal is for BBGo to blend naturally into the airport environment, navigating politely, predictably, and safely alongside everyone else.

Could BBGo travel faster? Absolutely. That’s a question we continuously evaluate as we collect more real-world operating data.

But increasing speed isn’t simply a software setting: it’s a systems problem.

Our responsibility extends well beyond the person sitting on BBGo. We also have a responsibility to every traveler sharing the terminal: families with young children, older adults, airport employees, and passengers navigating crowded concourses. The vehicle shouldn’t make pedestrians feel startled or intimidated as it approaches, nor should it create an anxious experience for the passenger riding it.

Our objective is to build an autonomous vehicle that people instinctively trust — not one they instinctively avoid.

Trust is remarkably easy to lose. A single uncomfortable interaction can shape how someone feels about autonomous mobility for years. Earning that trust requires thousands of predictable, courteous, uneventful interactions in which the vehicle behaves exactly as people expect it to.

Every deployment helps us better understand that balance.

As our technology continues to mature, so will our understanding of where that balance lies. But one principle won’t change: autonomous mobility should adapt to people, not ask people to adapt to it.

This deployment reinforced an important lesson for us: autonomous mobility isn’t a race to achieve the highest top speed. It’s about earning trust.

Not Everyone Is Ready for Autonomy, and That’s Okay

Every deployment also included a few skeptics.

Some questioned whether autonomy belonged in a busy public space. Others admitted they wouldn’t trust an autonomous vehicle.

We welcomed those conversations.

In nearly every case, skepticism softened after people watched BBGo operate for a few minutes. Seeing it patiently wait for pedestrians, navigate around obstacles, and deliver passengers safely transformed AI from an abstract concept into something they could experience firsthand.

The best conversations weren’t about convincing anyone that autonomous mobility is inevitable. They were about listening to people’s concerns and understanding what it will take to earn their trust.

Accessibility Means Different Things to Different People

One of the biggest reminders from this deployment was that accessibility isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Some passengers had visible mobility impairments. Others were recovering from surgery, managing chronic pain, exhausted after a long flight, or simply trying to conserve energy before a long journey.

Every passenger had a different reason for choosing BBGo.

What they all shared was a desire to move through the airport independently, without waiting for assistance or relying on someone else.

Technology is only meaningful when it gives people more freedom, dignity, and confidence.

Continuing the Journey

Every day we operate at San José Mineta International Airport teaches us something new.

Some lessons come from the data: ride counts, miles traveled, navigation performance, and operational metrics. Others come from conversations with the people who step aboard BBGo for the very first time.

We’ll remember the passengers who instinctively reached for a joystick before discovering the vehicle drove itself. The traveler who laughed and said, “Of course, this is Silicon Valley.” The families who watched BBGo weave naturally through the terminal. The little ones who remarked, “Mom, it’s moving by itself!!” The skeptics who stayed to ask questions after seeing autonomous mobility in action.

Those moments remind us that building an autonomous vehicle isn’t just an engineering challenge.

It’s a human one.

As our deployment at San José Mineta International Airport continues, we’ll keep listening, learning, and refining BBGo with every ride. Building autonomous mobility isn’t just about advancing robotics—it’s about earning trust, one passenger and one interaction at a time.

We’re excited to see what the next hundred rides [and the hundreds after that] will teach us.